[Roux]

 Aaron Isaacs’ Apartment
Seattle, WA
1 November 2017
OFF-Camera

Things had not gone Aaron’s way at High Stakes, that much was undeniable. That did not mean that the trip was not without a silver lining. Kitty had come out to visit him, cheer him on, and pick up the pieces when he did not walk out victorious. The two of them had spent everyday together since they had gotten back in the country. Each day they acted like they might do individual things, but always ended up making plans together. Those plans always seemed to steal away the rest of the day and a lot of the night. It was like they were creating their own little world with one another. That is how they ended up in Aaron’s apartment, watching movies deep into the early hours of the morning. They would have normally gone their separate ways by now, but there it had not happened tonight like it had all of them that had come before. As the credits roll on yet another movie that they mostly talked through and ignored, he yawns. He quickly brings his hand up to cover it, and tries to play it off like it had not happened. However, when he looks down at her, her eyes are locked on him. He shakes his head, and blinks his eyes a few times.

AARON: "You didn’t see that.”

She giggles before she raises her hand to cover her own mouth, and yawns into it.

KITTY: "You’re contagious!”

She leans her head on his shoulder and wraps her arm around his bicep.

KITTY: "I suppose I should head on back to Amanda and Parker’s house….”

He panics, not wanting her to leave, but not wanting to be so forward as to ask her to stay. His reels back his fear though, as she makes no immediately move to get off of the bed. He sits up slightly, not enough to displace her, and leans his head forward enough to look around a small lamp on the side table next to the bed. Hanging on the wall on the opposite side of the room was a small clock. He notes the time and shakes his head.

AARON: "It’s only a few hours until sunrise. I’m not sure you should be driving if you’re that tired. I can take you and drop you off.”

KITTY: "I’ll be alright. Plus, it’s not my car. It’s Violet’s. If I leave it here she might flay me alive.”

She chuckles, but neither of them were convinced that it was too far-fetched for Violet to do.

KITTY: "I’ll be alright…”

Her actions betray her words though, and she yawns again, this time unable to raises her hand to cover her mouth first. It causes him to laugh, and he raises his index finger to point towards her lips.

AARON: "I don’t think so. That’s two in less than a minute.”

Her yawn is equally as contagious as his, and he has to look away from her. He covers his mouth through the yawn and again tries to play it off like nothing had happened.

AARON: "I can just bring it back out to you if she gets mad. No way I am letting you get behind the wheel tired. If you wrecked and died nobody would ignore movies with me. Plus, I owe you for surprising me out in Australia.”

KITTY: "I would totally haunt you if I died...”

He shakes his head, and his eyes get wide with fear.

AARON: "I have seen what happens to haunted people in movies, so I’m going to pass…”

She smiles and taps his nose playfully.

KITTY: "...and you’re just as tired, so you don’t need to be driving either.”

He opens his mouth to offer the first solution that comes to mind, but his brain pulls the plug on the thought before his voice can catch up to it. He debates with himself for a second, and then looks down at the bed. It appears that he is weighing the pros, cons, and how much it would suck to get shot down before he looks up to her and floats his idea.

AARON: "You know, you could just stay here…”

His brain kicks into overdrive, trying to explain that the request was innocent before she jumped to conclusions and shot him down.

AARON: "I mean the bed is more than big enough. We can even stay separate with all the pillows. I’m not trying to.. You know… take advantage or anything... I mean just because you came to High Stakes, I’m not expecting...“

His voice trails off until he just stops trying to explain it. She smiles sweetly, finding the fact that he was worried about offending her endearing.

KITTY: "I would never think that you would try to take advantage of me, Aaron. We have been hanging out for a few weeks and it has been a platonic thing. Most guys would not wait that long to make a move if they had nefarious plans to lure me into sleeping with them...”

She nudges him to get him to look over at her. The smile on her face eases his fear.

KITTY: "...and I would love to stay over, but only on one condition.”

He seems caught off guard by the fact that she would want to stay at all. It was not exactly the nicest place. From what he had heard from other students at Jet City, it might have been one of the biggest dumps that anyone in their group lived in. The one room, hole-in-the-wall apartment left a lot to be desired. The fact that she would stay, even conditionally, was better than he could have hoped for.

AARON: "I think that I can probably make it work…”

He looks around the apartment.

AARON: "I mean I can take the floor or something.”

She lets out a laugh loud enough to get his attention. Both of her hands raise to her mouth to cover it and her cheeks turn red in embarrassment. She shakes her head in an attempt to clarify, but it takes a second to compose herself.

KITTY: "No silly… i need to borrow a shirt or something to sleep in. This is not going to work.”

She motions down at her clothes. It makes him chuckle lightly as he sees the problems. Between the pockets, and tightness of the clothing, there was no way she would ever be comfortable trying to sleep in it. His cheeks flush with color when he realizes that instead of answering, he was basically just checking her out. His eyes snap back up to hers.

AARON: "That’s... easy…”

The words come out almost too far away from one another to be a single thought. He slides off of the bed and walks through the small living space to a dresser. Most of his things were still packed in his suitcase, which sat next to the door of the apartment. He had not even bothered to unpack since getting back. He opens a drawer and pulls a shirt from it. He holds it up when he turns back towards her.

AARON: "I’m not entirely sure that this will not swallow you whole…”

With a smile, he tosses it over to her as she slides towards the end of the bed. It lands next to her and she scoops it up in her arms.

KITTY: "It probably will…”

She gets up off of the bed and crosses to him.

KITTY: "...but maybe just one more thing…”

He stays focused on her, but does not ask her what her other condition would be. She stops next to him instead of moving into the bathroom to change.

KITTY: "Stop beating yourself up over me coming out and you not winning. I thought you did great. Everyone in the audience was behind you. Don’t get so down about things not going perfectly. As long as you’re happy when you wake up in the morning, then what more do you need?”

He nods, instantly feeling a little guilty. The last few days had not been without their moments where he was less than enthusiastic. Coming up short on such a big stage had left a scar. It had been hard to shrug off and he was naive to think that she had not noticed. Instead of answering with words, he nods. She gets up on her tippy-toes and leans in, kissing him on the cheek.

KITTY: "Besides… you’ll do better next time. I know it!”

She moves past him and into the bathroom, closing the door behind her. His eyes follow her until the door is closed, and then he looks down at the floor. He chuckles under his breath, and starts to feel some of the weight that he was carrying around come off of his shoulders.  

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”Rebound”
ON-Camera

The video comes to life with Aaron in front of his laptop screen, as usual. He is casually dressed, and there is a smile on his face despite the setback he had suffered at High Stakes.

”What’s up guys. I know I have been quiet since High Stakes. To be honest it is not because I have been sulking the whole time. Don’t get me wrong, I have done my fair share of feeling bad for myself. I was right there at the end of the King For A Day ladder match. I was standing right there, and tried to knock down the ladder so that Crusader couldn’t take down the briefcase. I have to admit though, seeing him dive for it and hang on long enough to take it down was impressive. That is a really big dude. He was just hanging fifteen feet in the air. I’m sure everyone has seen the pictures circulating of me looking up at him. He took the fall that i was afraid of taking and he came down with the win. I can’t say anything but congratulations.”

The whole thing seems to be a little difficult for him to admit, but he gets through it.

”I was kind of excited for a return to normalcy after that match. I took the after the show to heal up. I spent some time with a good friend that helped me put that loss in the rear view mirror. I have even been talking to somebody about what the future may hold for me. Nobody likes losing, but I am not going to get bitter, or dwell on it. Climax Control is coming up and I get a second chance at the same guys that I shared the ring with at High Stakes. Crusader might find himself on the sidelines since he won the match, but the rest of us get to fight it out in an attempt to bounce back.”

While others might be bothered about sharing the ring with the same people, it does not seem to bother Aaron.

”I’m the kind of guy that does not want to move on until I have done something right. Sure, High Stakes was madness. Any time you throw a handful of big guys like us into a ladder match, things are going to go off the rails. It is hard to prepare for. It is hard to keep your head on a swivel for the entire match. You can get blindsided at a moment’s notice, just like Caleb Storms did to me with that dropkick. I left the arena feeling like I could have done better. At Climax Control I am going to get that opportunity.”

He laughs and shrugs his shoulders.

”So while a tuxedo street fight against four other men might not be the return to normalcy that I was hoping for, at least it is an opportunity for me to learn from my mistakes and come away with a win. I know the guys involved aren’t going to make it easy on me. Caleb and I went at each other in that last match, and even before the match in promos. It’s easy to talk about the guys that actually have something to say about a match, and Caleb was that guy at High Stakes. He came out with a promo early, and then had a follow up. That was twice as hard as Jeremiah Hardin or Samuel Devereux worked. Neither of them had anything to say, and they both walked out with disappointing losses. Maybe they weren’t focused. Maybe they were just there to collect a paycheck. I can’t speak to their motivations, nor would I ever attempt to make excuses for them, but they kind of let everyone down. In this business, it’s our duty to entertain. We may not always win. There are going to be a lot of disappointing nights over the course of a career. At the very least though, we are supposed to send the fans home believing that they saw our best. Jeremiah and Sam failed to do that at High Stakes, so I think it’s only fair that I don’t waste the fans’ time talking about them.”

He shrugs, and shakes his head lightly. There is not any malice in his words. He does not seem angry at all, but the disappointment on his face is obvious.

”At least Josh Woodrum put in some actual effort. He might have a lifestyle that I find a little creepy, and might look like he is closing in on his seventies, but at least the guy came to fight. He was prepared coming in, and while we were in the ring, I actually got the feeling that he wanted to be there. I get that Sam and Jeremiah have had their title aspirations squashed lately, which could be why they were so out of it, but they should have taken a look at Josh. The guy might not be going anywhere, but at least he is out there doing his best. At least he came to High Stakes and attempted to put on a good show. Will we get that same kind of intensity this time around? I’m not sure. The guy had a hard time during the match, and it had to have weighed on him like it did me. Nobody likes to come up short, and only one of us is going to be able to rebound from it this week. I don’t mean the guy ill will, but I’m not ready to let him get back into the swing of things at my expense. This match is going to get violent, and if I have to put him down, I will. I don’t want to hurt anyone. I’m not out to end careers or injure anyone. I am going to do what I have to in order to walk out with a win though. If Josh Woodrum has to be the guy to take a loss to make it happen, then that is just the cost of doing business.”

He sits up a little straighter in his chair, and brushes at his chin with his fingertips like he was debating if he was going to say something. He sighs, and shakes his head, giving into the thought.

”We all know what this one is going to come down to though, don’t we? We know who is going to come into this match prepared, and ready to make up for High Stakes. I mean even before High Stakes people were talking about the match coming down to me, Crusader, and Caleb Storms. Crusader is not going to be in this one, but the sentiment hasn’t changed. Caleb Storms can hit hard on a microphone, and believe me, he can hit hard in the ring. We managed to work together a little, but I can’t help but feel like he got the better of me. I can’t help but feel like he walked away able to hold his head a little higher. Sure, I was there at the end to try and stop Crusader, but just watch that match back.”

He sighs again, this time there is clear disappointment in it.

”I know that I can beat you Caleb. I know that I can do better than I did. That’s not an insult to you, or your ability. That is just a fact. If I didn’t feel like that, maybe I shouldn’t be in this business. As much as this match is about bouncing back from a loss with a win, for me, it is more than that. I want to square up with Storms, weapons, tuxedos, or whatever madness comes our way, and prove to myself that I can walk away a winner. I think that I need that in order to be ready for what is to come. I need to close out this chapter before I begin the next one. That starts with Caleb Storms, Climax Control, and a street fight where everyone already knows we want the win the most. I’ll see you out there Caleb, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that Josh Woodrum, Jeremiah Hardin, or Sam Devereux are going to distract me from what this fight really is. May the best man win...”

He flashes a quick smile.

”...and I am going to bust ass to make sure that man is me. Not just for me though, but for everyone that shows up, or watches from home. They are the important ones. Before I was an active competitor, I was just like all of them. I was a fan of SCW. I was one of the thousands of people that spent money to come and see the people I share a locker room with now. That is what makes me excited for what is coming next. That is why I want to put on a good show. That is why I want to win this match. That is why Josh, Caleb, Jeremiah, and Sam better come prepared.”

He seems like he wants to say something else, but stops short of spilling any beans.

”See you guys in a couple days. It’s going to be a night to remember.”